ReturnToTheTarSands

For me, one of the most striking and memorable images from the To The Tar Sands bike trip is one that I never saw but only heard described: ranchers and farmers standing on the land, preventing with their bodies the descent of helicopters arriving to drill for natural gas. A powerful act of resistance that at least in that one instance helped the community in Southern Alberta have its voice heard.

To bring some kind of sanity and balance to the type of development that’s happening in Alberta, I feel that strengthening the voices of landowners and stakeholders is imperative. Instead, the government seems to be introducing legislation that does just the opposite:
Meet Bill 46, currently in front of Alberta Legislature.

On the face of it, Bill 46 a simple house-keeping bill intended to increase the efficiency of the regulatory system around energy by separating the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) into two organizations (Energy Resources Conservation Board and the Alberta Utilities Commission). But there are sections of the new bill that can significantly restrict the already limited rights to public participation on decisions around energy such as placement of transmission lines and pipelines. For example:

- Citizens will only have the right to a hearing if they are “directly and adversely affected” by the decision and even then only if the effects are “material” (who is to say what this means exactly?)
- The Commission can refuse to hold a hearing if the proponents (e.g. energy companies) have complied with the “rules respecting stakeholders” (who says these rules are any good?)
- When a hearing is given, the participation is limited to written submissions - no oral presentations or representation by a lawyer (who says that’s a “hearing”?!?)

Stakeholders including many local landowners groups, Greenpeace, the Pembina Institute, the Sierra Club, the Consumers Association of Canada, the Beef Producers of Alberta and the City of Calgary have all shared their concerns regarding Bill 46 with the Government of Alberta. Groups are calling on us to help Kill Bill 46 by writing to Premier Ed Stelmach (premier@gov.ab.ca) and asking that Government stop the progress of Bill 46 through the Alberta Legislature and send it to an all-party committee where public hearings can be conducted.

Good sources of information on this topic are the Environmental Law Centre and Pembina Institute and this CBC article: Environmentalists Dressed as Spies Protest Bill 46.

Filed under: Environmental Justice, Politics, TTTS on November 25th, 2007